Folding Forum

Am I alone to feel that the forum pages are quite slow to load

I have a potential explanation about the problem but I need other point of view : I read a long time ago that the forum is not using gzip compression to reduce data transfers ... and I think it's the main problem. When I load a page it take up to 5 seconds @ around 15 KB/s and the page loads slowly like in the old html time (and not with an unique block when gzip and php are combined).

So main issue is the poor bandwidth I get from the forum server even on a broadband connection.

My second concern is related to the fact the forum is not using gzip : I often use a 56k modem when I'm away, and browsing the forum with it is awful ... so I usually don't visit them (usually on weekends).

Is there a chance to see the gzip compression enabled (it would also save bandwidth server side too, but add some load on the server)

toTOW, can you try switching to subsilver and disabling sigs and avatars during a weekend to see if it behaves better over your 56k connection?

Can you also check to see that you have not enabled the "Every visit to the page" setting for "Check for newer versions of stored pages" if you're using IE? Or its equivalent in FF/others? This is a killer.

If you consider each page to be around 100-150 kB, you are looking at load times of 15-20 seconds per page on a 56kbps line, in a best-case scenario. Yep, that's slow

Enabling GZip will help, if the hosting server can handle the extra work on the CPU.

I use the subsilver theme with sigs+avatars+some static pictures (like the logo) disabled and my typical connection is via a 2Mbps cable line. And its blazing fast. With prosilver however, the pages just get stuck sometimes and wait endlessly.

I already use subsilver ... I don't like the new theme

It seem much faster today (back to normal) on my broadband connection ... I don't know why : I load the pages at 46-65 KB/sec (take a couple of seconds to load) instead of the poor 15 KB/sec speed I was getting yesterday.

Signatures and avatars are not the issue when everything gets slow : forum index and topic listing are also very slow.

But I would still appreciate GZip compression for 56k modem

P.S : yesterday when it was slow, I also browsed to the main site of the hosting company ... and it was also slow (even if the pages are much simpler) ...